Simply Sheep

[frustratedearthmother]

Nice!

 

[wyoDreamer]

@Beekissed I hope it works for you. Sounds like an interesting system.

 

[Beekissed]

@Beekissed I hope it works for you. Sounds like an interesting system.

Thank you, me too! If this all works it could really streamline and better watering for all animals in all seasons, but particularly in the winter months. Once I get this established, I'll be moving the dogs to the same kind of watering. Right now I use a heated bucket for the dogs in the winter, but one of the dogs is now so small he won't be able to utilize that and the heated buckets get slimy and have to be emptied of nearly half the water...creates an ice slick and a lot of waste each time.

 

[PatriciaPNW]

I think I will need pictures of this system to understand it. No rush LOL. I am mechanically challenged so I really admire you for coming up with these ideas and at least a first draft on how to make it happen. I am still working on best ways to hang chicken water dispensers- just nails and wired but still under revision. 🙄

 

[Beekissed]

Bee, can you roll it onto a tarp? Perhaps a tarp on top of a sheet of plywood? Would it then be possible to turn it by pulling on the tarp? How bout one tarp on top of an other? The layers of plastic would provide plenty of slip to perhaps swivel the bale in the direction you want it to go.

I doubt it...the wt. of the bale is so much that I could never budge it by pulling on a tarp. These things are so compact, so dense....they are a good 1200 lbs.

 

[flowerbug]

i'd just let them eat it where it sits and if i needed to scoop and carry some leavings from the sheep once in a while that would be much lighter and then i could put those where i wanted them.

 

[Beekissed]

Or lever it. My dad's statement: If you have a lever long enough, you can move the world.

But, by far, the easiest thing to do is wait for DS. !!!!!!!!

I could do that and likely will when I have to turn them when Eli isn't here and I can't accomplish it by rocking it.

Your dad was right.....

 

[flowerbug]

I have no problem rolling the bale...it's round, so it rolls quite nicely. It's swiveling the bale that was the problem, but the next time I have to swivel it, it will be considerably smaller and I can do that by myself.

Cutting the layers would make rolling it out evenly even more difficult and I've found cutting that rolled hay to be VERY hard to do with any effectiveness.



Yes....very much like that to pick up sheep pellets and try to scatter them evenly across the proposed pasture. Especially after they've been rained on and trampled in to the mud.

In this way, I can roll out the bale a little further each day and the sheep will do the rest, without too much impaction of the soil.

oh, ok. thanks for the clarification, i thought it was just too heavy to move at all...

i do know that it is often easier to swivel things as they are moving instead of when they are at dead stop.

 

[flowerbug]

True....if the object doesn't weigh 1200 lbs, is 5x5x5 ft, is textured and on a texture surface and doesn't have anything firm to grab onto as you swivel...the hay just shoves off as you push on it. Kind of bulky, slippery to grasp and heavy as lead on a rough surface. I'm only 5'3" and not nearly 5 ft. wide yet, though I'm getting close so it's me against the bale....I can get it moving and even swivel it a little to change direction, but to swivel it 180* after I've got it where I want it is a bit much for me.

Plus this bale is lopsided! That makes it even harder to get a good straight rolling going, as well as swiveling smoothly.

When next we buy round bales, I'll have the guy load them so they are in roll out position when they are pushed off the trailer, then I'll drop them out in the field/pasture where I will start using them.

Live and learn!

sounds like a good plan!

 

[Beekissed]

Wouldn't yo know it, now that I actually said something on here about that old hay lined up along the field edge - some one took it away. It is all gone as of this weekend. lol

NO way! After it had been there that long??? What are the chances....?